Ernest Dove - The Forgotten Men In The Outfield

Before Juan Lagares was exceeding expectations. Before EY Jr. was given the chance to run his way out of career bench player, and into an mlb starting outfielder. Before CY and Granderson were signed, sealed and delivered. And before the Duda experiment, there were two other names consistently being mentioned in the Mets outfield.

 Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Matt den Dekker.

 They are both 26 years old. They are both born in August. They are both lefties. They are both known to handle themselves well, defensively, in the outfield. They are both being quickly forgotten in this organization.

 In 2012, thanks to some early Mets injuries (what else is new), and other players who simply weren't panning out, the Mets went with kind of a low regarded prospect named Kirk. At the time, I kind of think of him as a version of Juan Lageres. Not highly regarded, but was crushing minor league pitching, and played solid defense. That April, 'captain' Kirk came out on fire, batting over .300, and simply exceeding all expectations....... But then, the rest of the year happened. Call it what you want. Call it a rookie learning curve. Call it an inability to not adjust to the pitchers adjustments made on him. Call it coming back to earth. In 91 total games in 2012, he hit .252, with 7 homers, and 98 Ks in only 282 ABs. 2013 was far worse for Nieuwenhuis. He ended up hitting .189, and found himself right back down in the minors. Where he managed to hit a lot of homers, in the desert, against AAA pitching.

 As for Matt den Decker, He was the actual 'prospect'. The young man with a lot of talent, an ability to eventually adjust accordingly to the pitching at every minor league level, and the ability to project as a gold glove caliber outfielder, with highlight reel plays, going back to his college days. I've written about den Dekker before. He would start off having a terrible adjustment when promoted to a new level in the minors, only to later excel. Age 25 is not exactly AARP status. However, in 2013, it appeared to become a 's*^t or get of the pot' type of spring for Matt. And that's when it happened. Injury happened. Of course, fittingly, the injured wrist occurred while attempting a diving play in the outfield, where his hustle and defense has gotten him this chance. Again, like Nieuwenhuis, it almost makes no sense to talk about the stats in the PCL, upon his return from injury, because we already knew that den Dekker could now hit AAA pitching, especially in the thin air of the desert. So now, here we are. Its 2014 already. Juan Lagares broke defensive rookie outfield assist record.

The Duda experiment failed miserably. EY Jr. still wants his chance to start. CY and Granderson have given the Mets over $20 million combined reasons to play every day out there. And all Matt den Dekker has done this spring so far is hit .438 in his 16 at bats, as of Thursday morning. His at bats are random and scattered, which mirrors his playing time, but he has produced when called upon. As for the forgotten captain Kirk, he is hitting a respectable .273, with a .407 OBP in his 22 spring at bats. Essentially, what the Mets have seemingly done here is gather a total of about 5 or 6 center fielders onto their roster at this point. Depending on who you ask, CY and Granderson will become corner outfielders, which would leave the door open for Lagares to take his first full season chance at capturing gold glove number one in center. With a team being built on pitching, it sure doesn't hurt to have some solid defensive outfielders round out the bench. However, I believe the Mets may only need one lefty hitting, solid defense, 26 year old, born in August, back up outfielder. So what should they do????